Turing a robot in a catapult (or something like that)

    So how to begin, This may seem like a strange topic but i am going to explain this as best as can.

    Each year during the Christmas party in our company (except for the last year because of some reason:nauseated_face:) we like to something weird but fun, usually with one of our production machines. af few years ago i modified one of our milling robots in to a chocolate rotomoulding machine (the old topic can still be found here: Kuka robot as rotational mould machine).

    For this year as the title of the topic implies, i want to try to turn the robot into some sort of catapult. To be clear i dont want to make anything dangerous, but i think throwing something like a tennisbal should be fine. If can keep it simple enough i will change 2 robots and they can trow balls at each other but i am getting a head of myself.

    How i want to accomplish this is by emulating the motion of Trebuchet with a long arm (dont know how long probably need to do some math on that one) mounted perpendicular to the flange. So most of the motion will be done by A2,A3 and A6.

    As icing on the cake i am probably wiring a big red button to one of the inputs as a launch button.

    What i want the know or better said what i am worried about is the amount of torque i am putting on A6. The software will stop if i in someway overtorque the axis but i want to be as carefull as possible. Is there anyone with experience with high torques on specifically A6 or maybe suggestions on a better approach?

    At the moment i have not decided which robot i am going to use but i can choose from:

    KR150 with KRC2 kss 4.97

    KR150 with arm extension with KRC2 kss 4.97

    KR210 KRC2 Kss 4.97

    KR150 but with a krc2 running kss 5.6

    Every problem has a solution, that isn't the problem. The problem is the solution.

    already done:

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    1) read pinned topic: READ FIRST...

    2) if you have an issue with robot, post question in the correct forum section... do NOT contact me directly

    3) read 1 and 2

    I think you might run out of room for a trebuchet-style range of motion. And getting the balls aimed properly and consistently might be... a "non-trivial exercise," so to speak.

    That said, for throwing tennis balls, I really wouldn't worry about over-stressing the robot. As long as you don't tamper with the values in $MACHINE.DAT (which those guys in Panic's video did), the robot will basically ignore any commands to over-torque itself (IE, if you program it to move at 150%, it will only do 100%). If you do manage to over-torque an axis, the robot will just fault out.

    Aligning A6 with A2 and A3, and putting some lever on A6 for extra swing, should work, but you'll need a pretty high ceiling.

    panic mode

    Thanks for the video, that is exactly what i want to attempt. It does raise a question though. they are basically only using axis 2 and 3 and axis 6 seems to be stationary. seems to me they either missed a opportunity to get some extra speed, or they know something that i don't. that could be something fun to find out. :winking_face:

    @SkyFire

    It is not my intention to tamper with the robot in any way. in the end this is just for a bit of fun for perhaps an hour or so and then robot has to go back to work.

    I have got a 9,5m high ceiling, so i am not that worried about the height. The overall size of the cell could be problem and that is probably going to determine the length of the arm that i can mount.

    Every problem has a solution, that isn't the problem. The problem is the solution.

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